NVIDIA’s GTC 2014 – final report
Thursday & Conclusion
| Thursday, March 27, 2014 | ||
| S4412 | Tegra K1 and the Automotive Industry | |
We actually caught a quick session first by San Diego State University that was primarily concerned with power usage for their workstations and super computers. They embrace GPU programming as their power bill is now far lower by using Nvidia GPUs. Take a look at the following example:
Twenty-five times cheaper and twice as quick is a great reason to use CUDA and GPU computing! SDSU has also calculated when memory EEC is absolutely necessary, and when it is not. And they have calculated hybrid programming models with Double and Single Precision to save on energy and on time. They have also calculated when to use ECC for calculations, as well as how to determine which GPUs have hardware issues very quickly.
Our next session was “Tegra K1 and the Automotive Industry”.
Although Tegra in automotive has previously been limited to instrument clusters, infotainment/navigation, and entertainment, there are some pretty ambitious plans to have a self-driving car by 2020 that requires a Tegra K1. 
You think teaching one of your family members to drive is hard to do?
This session was an impressive demonstration of the need for super-fast massively parallel computing only a mobile GPU can provide. Without it, this project simply could not get off the ground.
The Thursday Keynote with Dr. Adam Gazzaley, director of Neuroscience Imaging Center at the University of California, SF, “Video Games and the Future of Cognitive Enhancement”
This was to be our final session at GTC 2014. Lunch was served from 12 noon to 2 PM in the exhibit hall of the Convention Center, and ground transportation for this editor to the airport was scheduled for 2PM.
This particular Thursday keynote should be watched by everyone when it is posted on Nvidia’s GTC site as it deals with enhancing fading cognition with video games. The current system for managing cognitive impairment is a disaster and a shame on 21st century medicine.
Brain plasticity is the key to improving cognition. We need targeted treatment that is personalized, multi-modial, and closed loop – something where today’s medicine falls completely flat. Tests have shown that a person’s multi-tasking performance peaks in the early twenties and then falls off slowly as the 60s are approached. However, with training by using a video game, an older person’s cognitive performance, as demonstrated by measured frontline Theta, can improve to perform at age 60 even better than at the peak of a 23 year old.
What is noticeable is that video games can help improve multi-tasking performance, and with training and with the right kind of game, an older person can improve cognition. And if a video game is made specifically for improving cognition with feedback, it can be important therapy. Actual brain wave measurements can be made during gameplay to chart progress and to provide feedback.
The first video game specifically designed for cognitive enhancement is Neuroracer. After a few years, a second mobile game was created with better and more immersive graphics. They both give rewards when two criteria are met, and the player levels up as he gets better at it.
The keynote finished up with a realtime demonstration using Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead. He used the Oculus Rift while wearing electrodes attached to his scalp as he drummed and played a interactive game. All the while his brainwaves were being measured and visualized with the “Glass Brain” for all to see. 
Much credit goes to the GPU for making this possible at all. We will continue to follow this as we have a personal interest in the research.
More information can be found at:
We headed back once more to the Exhibit hall for lunch and to look at the exhibits as they were winding down. Let’s take a look back in photos of the exhibit hall
Networking/exhibits
In the main exhibit hall, Nvidia had several large sections. One favorite was the G-SYNC demonstration.
G-SYNC is everything the tech editors have raved about. This editor games without vSYNC but cannot imagine gaming without G-SYNC once we get a G-SYNC-enabled display.
Here are a few more images of GeForce and Tegra gaming.
Tegra K1 and Android gaming was featured, as well. Trine 2 (above) is one of the most beautiful visually impressive games and we look forward to seeing it on Tegra in 3D someday.
At the GTC it was rare but possible to find a game to play without a long line waiting.
Cars are always popular, and now much more than Infotainment/navigation and entertainment are provided by Nvidia. Audi is working on a self-driving car powered by Tegra K1.
There was also exhibit space devoted to a virtual showroom to demonstrate how a potential buyer might customize his auto, including the background in real time.
Here are two more cars that will use mobile Tegra.
All of Nvidia’s major partners in professional GPU computing were represented with their servers, including HP …
… and IBM …
… Microway …
. . . and SuperMicro.
PNY featured their professional Quadro and consumer GeForce graphics including TITAN and GTX 780 Ti.
Gigabyte had a presence.
There was a lot to take in. Parrot was showing off their AR Drone 2.0 which you could test drive at Nvidia’s GTC party. 
Lightworks … 
Citrix
There was also Holovizio which showed off glasses-free 3D that was pitched for signage (no 2D photo can convey the excellent image presented). Even 3D printing was showcased.
We are reminded that the GTC is all about people. Helpful people. People with a passion for GPU computing and desire to share and learn. The GPU cannot yet replace face-to-face human contact.
Everywhere we see networking. Appetizers were also served at no charge. It was quite a logistical feat to care for about 3,000 people but Nvidia was once again up to the task. The only issue with the GTC is that there is realistically too much to take in at once. No one could see all 600 sessions – that is way up over the 340 sessions of the 2012 GTC that we last attended. There were over 200 volunteers which made it possible. Our thanks to Nvidia for inviting ABT to the 2014 GTC.
Conclusion
On Thursday afternoon, we packed up early and headed for the San Francisco airport with a few other tech editors heading home to the USA East Coast and to England, taking our SHIELDs and our unique experiences with us. We said good-bye to our adventure at the 2014 GTC and we hope that we can return next year. It was an amazing experience as it is really an ongoing revolution that started as part of Nvidia’s vision for GPU programming just a few years ago. It is Nvidia’s disruptive revolution to make the GPU “all purpose” and at least as important as the CPU in computing. Over and over, their stated goal is to put the massively parallel processing capabilities of the GPU into the hands of smart people.
Here is our conclusion from the 2009 GTC
Nvidia gets a 9/10 for this conference; a solid “A” for what it was and is becoming and I am looking forward to GTC 2010! As a plea to them, make next year’s conference schedule less hectic and definitely make it longer. Kudos for not dumping us into San Jose rush hour traffic at 3 PM, as last year. This editor sees the GPU computing revolution as real and we welcome it!
Well, the GTC 2014 gets another ‘A’. Maybe an A+. Nvidia has made the conference larger but not any less hectic. Next year, attendees can look forward to another 4-day conference from April 28 through May 1, 2015 at the San Jose Convention Center.
Our hope for future GTCs is that Nvidia will make it “spectacular” like they did with Nvision08 – to bring the public awareness of GPU computing to the fore by again highlighting the video gaming side of what their GPUs can do, as well as diverse projects including the progress made in the medical field against dementia, and in automotive.
This was a relatively short and very personal report on the GTC. We have literally a hundred gigabytes of untapped information in raw video and hundreds of pictures and sessions that did not make it into this wrap-up. However, we shall continue to reflect back on the GTC on ABT Forum until the next one.
Mark Poppin
ABT Editor-in-Chief
